Samsung Galaxy On8 Review: The Mid-Range Champion

There is a huge demand of decent phones in the mid-range smartphone market. There are still only handful of phones in this range which are doing some decent business otherwise, this field is still lagging. The mid-range smartphones market is still over shadowed by the limelight of high end flagship devices. It was Samsung who understood the need of the hour & introduced the Galaxy On Series specifically for mid-range smartphone market.

After the huge success of Galaxy On5 & On7, Samsung is back again with Galaxy On8. The latest phone in the On Series has got some major improvements as compared with its processor. The device has got some nice specs and looks strong on paper. However, it has been proved again & again that strong specs don’t necessarily mean a good smartphone. In this post, we are going to review the Samsung’s latest Galaxy On8 and will let you know whether it is worth buying or not.

Samsung Galaxy On8 Design: It’s same with some tiny changes

Samsung doesn’t focus much on looks in the mid-range smartphones and the best example of it is Galaxy On8. It looks exactly like On7 with very few changes. The device is 7.8 mm thick and weighs 169 grams. Samsung has ditched the leather back cover which was present on On7 and has come up with a Plastic back cover having a metallic finish.

Samsung Galaxy On8 Review

It features a shiny chrome rim running around along with round corners just like Galaxy J7. The most disappointing thing in On8 is that it lacks notification light which is a basic feature and is present in all the smartphones these days. Galaxy On8 features the traditional look of Samsung having a home button at the bottom centre of the device with metal lining around it. There are two capacitive buttons without the backlit support.

Though, there is nothing special in the design but it is still better than its predecessor. Furthermore, the device offers excellent grip and can be used easily with one stand.

Samsung Galaxy On8 Display: Better than the last

Samsung finally realised the need of Super AMOLED display as On8 is the first device in the Galaxy On series to feature a full HD Super AMOLED Display as compared with TFT display in On7.

Samsung Galaxy On8 comes with a 5.5” Full HD Super AMOLED display with a pixel ratio of 1920×1080 pixels and 401 ppi. It delivers a good color reproduction & saturation along with better viewing angles and sharpness.

The AMOLED Photo Mode is made for watching content from premium digital cameras as it needs Adobe RGB Color gamut. The Basic Mode uses the standard color settings and can be used as a mixture of all three other modes.

Samsung Galaxy on8 Display

The display has gone a bit higher in terms of quality and it is the best display you can expect at this price range.

Galaxy On8 Software & Performance: Decent for Average use

Since, it is a mid-range smartphone, you can’t except a lot from it in terms of performance. The device is powered by a 1.6 GHz Octa-Core Exynos 7580 & is supported by a 3GB RAM. The device offers decent performance without any noticeable lag. It is capable of handling games like Asphalt 8, Dead Trigger but things start shaking up when you change the settings to High Graphics.

It starts showing signs of lagging as soon as you switch to high graphic mode or starts toggling in between game & app. Apart from this, it is fast enough for daily usage and multitasking.

The device comes with Android 6.0 Marshmallow out of the box with Samsung own UI on the top. The drop-down notification bar serves as a quick setting tool and can be used for changing many things like SIM Card.

There is an inbuilt Smart Manager app that allows you to manage the battery life, storage, security & RAM. Just run it once whenever you feel lag and your device will start working again smoothly & fast.

Samsung Galaxy On8 offers 1.4 GB of free RAM when all the default apps are running in the background. Since it comes with a lot of bloatware, you will only get 13 GB of internal storage out of 16 GB. However, you can expand it via SD card as it supports expandable storage up to 128 GB.

The one downside of the phone is its audio output. The audio output of the device is very poor as it only features one small speaker that too on the backside which gets covered when placed on a flat surface resulting in low sound. There are chances that you may miss out on call due to this so it is suggested to have vibration feature active all the time.

Galaxy On8 Features: Ultra Data Saving Mode & S Bike Mode

Samsung Galaxy On8 features Ultra Data Saving Mode which can help a lot in saving the internet data. If you enable the Ultra Data Saving Mode, it will compress the cellular data across the device including videos, media, websites and apps. If you are low on data, this feature can be a life savior.

Bike Mode – Galaxy On8 Review

The second and most unique feature of Samsung Galaxy On8 is the S Bike Mode. Once you activate the S Bike Mode, all the calls that you receive would be directly answered by the device inbuilt answering machine.

So, the callers would be notified by a text message that the person you are calling is riding a bike and it will ask them to call you later. During the S Bike Mode, you would not see any notification as well. Although, if it an urgent situation, the caller can dial 1, and user will get the call notification. However, you can receive the call only when bike speed is less than 10 km/h.

All the calls during the S Bike mode are collected in the notification tab which can be accessed once the mode is deactivated. You can also set automated text as a reply to the caller.

Samsung Galaxy On8 Camera: The best you can get

Samsung Galaxy On8 sports a 13 MP Rear Camera with f/1.9 aperture and a 5 MP front camera. The rear camera is also capable of shooting 1080p videos. There is single LED Flash on both side. LED Flash light on front side is a good feature as it attracts a lot of selfie lovers. The camera offers many options like Panorama, Beauty Face, Timer, HDR etc.

The camera can be launched by just pressing the home button twice where volume rocker works as a camera shutter. When it comes to mid-range smartphones you can expect much but Samsung Galaxy On8 brakes this notion and delivers amazing quality images with fine amount of sharpness & details.

However, the same is not case in low light. Image Quality decrease a lot in the case of low light but again, you can’t except much at this price range.

Here are few samples photos.

Camera Review Samsung Galaxy On8

Samsung Galaxy On8 Battery & Connectivity

It is powered by a 3300 mAh removal battery which delivers decent backup. It can run for a day with average usage. Though, the Ultra Power Saver Mode helps a lot in saving battery in emergency as it applies a greyscale theme and limits the number of usable apps. In terms of connectivity, it supports 4G LTE and comes with Bluetooth 4.1 and NFC. It is dual SIM phone and supports OTG.

Final Verdict

Samsung Galaxy On8 is a decent device and fits ideally in the mid-range segment. It has got everything which needs to be there in a phone for average use. It is better than its predecessor and it also decently priced. It is available in Black, Gold & white color and costs $210.